Words About Alan

“Al Wilson taught Son House to play Son House. I can tell you, flatly, that without Al invigorating Son, there would have been no Son House rediscovery. All of Son’s successful concert appearances, recordings, and him being remembered as having a great second career - all that was because of Al rejuvenating his music.”....”Al spent a couple of hours every day with Son, intensely teaching him. Al infused that old music into him, filling him up with the framework of his old playing.” - Dick Waterman from “Blind Owl Blues” by Rebecca Davis Winters

“Son House (Waterman told it like it was in 1965)”- This forum contains a letter from Dick Waterman published in the Sept 1965 issue of Jazz Journal in which he makes no apologies to the blues purists of the time for enlisting the talents of a “21 year old white boy from Cambridge” to back House on 2 cuts from his 1965 Columbia recording “The legendary Son House: Father of Folk Blues”. More at: WeenieCampbell.com

“Child is Father to the Man : How Al Wilson Taught Son House to Play Son House.” - an article by Rebecca Davis - click here for Son House.pdf

“He (Wilson) came to see me. I had two records out at the time, so he asked me for a guitar lesson, right? So he comes over to my house and he’s got books, you know, everything I’d written and transcribed and he can play everything except a few short passages that he wanted to make sure he had right. The guy blew my mind, you know, he knew so much about music.” - John Fahey: Of Turtles, Bluesmen, Slide Guitar, Bitter Beer, and Religion - John Fahey: Background and Brief Biography

“Alan was not academic at all. He was a working- class kid and had little if any college education. But he was fiendishly intelligent and could not only reproduce Patton’s music on guitar but explain to you on many levels how it worked. I still consider Alan the most brilliant musical thinker I’ve ever known.” - Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento), interviewed by Nick Schillace, Aril 14, 2002

“Al Blind Owl Wilson was the soul of Canned Heat. He was one of the most virtuoso musicians I ever heard. Impeccable ear. He stuffed Kleenex up both nostrils so that he didn’t lose any air for the harp. Nobody could touch him on country blues harp and guitar. He had it.” - Max Ochs from Max Ochs -
Answers some questions from the producer

“We all have to have certain places inside of ourselves developed before we can do any kind of pair bonding. And I don’t think those places were developed in him. You know, I think he came in [to life] with his music and stuff, but in other areas of being human, I think he was just a babe in the woods. And that was part of what was painful. It can be painful to be a human and kind of not have the hang of it.”- Marina Bokelman quoted in “Blind Owl Blues” by Rebecca Davis Winters>